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JERRY SEINFELD REMEMBERS GENGHIS COHEN!

December 28, 2012

still can’t use hands…but thanks to my old friend joe klein, one of the original partners in genghis cohen, we have the story and videos behind the classic seinfeld episode, “the chinese restaurant” which was inspired by genghis cohen and my keeping jerry and larry david(the series co-creator) waiting in line.

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JERRY SEINFELD REMEMBERS GENGHIS COHEN!

by Joe Klein and Artie Wayne

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JERRY SEINFELD and LARRY DAVID were among the major celebrities that ate at Allan Rinde’s GENGHIS COHEN, the restaurant I named and hosted for several years. One time Jerry and Larry came in and the restaurant was packed. Not a single table top was available for them and, as it turned out, even moving them to the “front of the line” still forced them to wait almost half an hour to be seated.

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SEINFELD was rapidly gaining in viewership at the time and the program’s ratings were on the rise. I am sure that the star of a popular NBC show and one of its creators were not all that happy with the delay. But, as fate would have it, they managed to find humor in the situation, giving birth to one of the series most acclaimed episodes.

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In 2004, all of the SEINFELD episodes were released on DVD’s, which included bonus features. One of the DVD extras is a documentary called HOW IT BEGAN, which chronicles the show’s origin and evolution into a monster hit. It included numerous interview clips with Jerry, Larry, the show’s other cast members and its writers. There’s a segment in the documentary where Jerry talks about a pivotal episode which was in Seinfeld’s second season. The episode is called “The Chinese Restaurant” and yes, you guessed it, it’s about the gang waiting for a table at a popular Asian eatery.

“The Chinese Restaurant” is widely regarded as the episode that firmly established the premise of Seinfeld being the one and only TV show that was “about nothing,” a format which would propel the sitcom to the top of the ratings heap for years to come. NBC didn’t “get it,” and, at first, refused to produce the episode. But when Jerry and Larry protested and threatened to quit the show if it wasn’t made, NBC reluctantly agreed and the episode was produced. The network still had its doubts and relegated the airing of The Chinese Restaurant to late in the season, first airing it in May of 1991. It was the first SEINFELD episode that Jerry’s neighbor “Cosmo” (played by Michael Richards) didn’t appear in, much to his chagrin later when it went on to receive rave reviews and ultimately reach legendary status as a Seinfeld classic.

NBC broadcast their own “reunion” documentary, called THE SEINFELD STORY, on Thanksgiving night in 2004, which included parts of “How It All Began.” The Chinese restaurant episode was included in the NBC documentary as well.

Sure the glitterati graced Genghis Cohen on a regular basis. You never knew which celeb would come walking through the doors. But it’s safe to say that Allan and I never could have imagined that one of Hollywood’s most infamous waits for a table would inspire an episode that would help to turn Seinfeld into one of the most successful sitcoms in TV history!

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I’m glad that a few friends are enjoying this cool story about the restaurant, which, in itself, is a fitting tribute to Allan. With the help of his pals (and some of the tastiest Chinese food around), It only took a year or two for Genghis Cohen to establish its reputation as a “hot” Hollywood hangout.

When they wrote The Chinese Restaurant episode, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David paid homage by including a wacky character named “Mr. Cohen” (played by a very funny David Tress) who strides in to the restaurant in and gets seated immediately. The gang protests, reminding the maitre ‘d that they were there first but the stiff-faced host (portrayed by veteran Asian actor James Hong) explains that Mr. Cohen is there “all the time.”

Another funny moment near the end of the episode when the host calls out the name “Cartwright!” I won’t spoil it by explaining why, but the answer can be found online……

Die-hard SEINFELD fans interested in taking a fun little trivia quiz about the Chinese Restaurant episode of the show can do so here:

I remeber this episode so well(can’t remember what I had for lunch today)..really funny & something all of us have been thru. My husband has difficulty remembering names, so I really got a kick out of that part. But I don’t stand there silent like Elaine did – I introduce myself right away & that usually works!

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves regarding the memorial. It will be by invitation only and though there is a tentative date, nothing is set in stone. There are four organizers and they will be the only source of information.

Sally no one, especially me, is trying to “get ahead of ourselves” here, as you put it.

The memorial for Allan was mentioned on a public obituary page actually. If it is to be some kind of private invitation-only affair, whoever wrote the online obit probably should not have made mention of a memorial in the first place.

Personally, as I live hundreds of miles away from L.A. now and since Allan and I had a parting of the ways, never to be reconciled, over a decade ago, I won’t be able to attend in any event, even if I were lucky enough to “make the list.”

My apologies for mentioning the memorial on this blog. Please know that I wasn’t aware that it is going to be an “A-list” Hollywood event….